The birth of Isaac James

Hello! Sorry I've been so out of contact--I had a baby, you see :):). And I hear that gives me a free pass for a while to eat whatever I want and be out of touch. My mom was here for a while, and Kevin was off work, and now--mom is back home, and Kevin is back at work (he was actually only able to take a few days off). The baby is sleeping, so I have a few minutes.

It's amazing how busy you get after you have a baby. And how your whole life revolves around whether he's hungry or crying or sleepy or needs a clean diaper....

Anyhow, Mr. Pants was born Friday night, September 29th. I went into labor that morning at 12:30 am, and he was born at 9:37 pm. It was the hardest thing I ever did, but the most awesome.

I did not have a euphoric labor and orgasmic childbirth. And even though I read Ina May Gaskin's guide to childbirth, and took Hypnobirthing and read that book and practiced frequently, my labor was also not painless.

My due date was Tuesday, September 26th. I woke up really sick that day with some sort of cold or 24 hour flu thing. My mom got here the next night. Thursday the 28th, we watched the price is right, went to the mall, and went to the birth center for a class and an appointment. At the mall, we walked around and a bunch of people asked when I was due and if I was having twins. We ran into a woman at a booth that was selling rocks and minerals and meteors and stuff, and she had one there called moldivite that is supposed to be a meteor that makes your cervix dilate. So of course, my mom bought it for me, and had it made into a necklace and I wore it all day. we picked Kevin up from work, went to the birth center, and had my exam. They said I was a stretchy 1 cm dilated, 90% effaced, and that my water bag was bulging. The midwife said I was really close, and maybe I should think about taking some castor oil to get things going. I went to my class, and of course everyone there was like "Oh my god! You didn't have the baby yet?" No. Not yet. They were telling birth stories in the class, and one girl was saying that she took castor oil and it made her go into labor. Hmmm.

The midwife gave me some castor oil, and that night while I watched the Office, I drank 2 ounces of it. It was nasty and hard to drink, because I kept gagging. But I got it down.

Mom and I watched ER, and I went to bed after that.

At 12:30, I got up, beause my back was having some sort of spasm. It went away after a couple minutes, but then, it came back. It kept doing that, and I had to keep getting up to go to the bathroom (remember, I did drink 2 ounces of castor oil). At one time when I stood up, I felt something warm trickle down the inside of my leg. I wondered "Hmm, is my water breaking? Or is that my imagination?" I didn't feel anything else like it, and I couldn't tell if it was really wet because I was so hot and sweaty that honestly, al of my clothes felt damp, so, whatever.

I decided to start timing my back spasms, just in case they were contractions. They were about 5 minutes apart. So I woke Kevin up (at about 2:30) and told him "Hey, I think I could be in labor, but I'm not sure". He started timing the back spasms, and decided they were in fact about 5 minutes apart. We woke my mom up, and she said, go back to sleep. If you can sleep through them, they aren't contractions. But I hadn't been able to sleep since 12:30 because they hurt like a son of a bitch, so after trying to go back to sleep, I gave up and sat in a rocking chair in the living room. I was worried though that I hadn't felt that big gush you are supposed to feel when your water breaks, and I didn't know if I was having contractions or not because I didn't know they were supposed to feel like a really severe back spasm.

Kevin went back to bed. At 4, I got him up again, and he timed the contractions, and they were 3 minutes apart, and lasting about 2 minutes each. We got my mom up again, who decided I should call the midwife. I called the midwife, she told me that if I was in labor, I would probably be in labor a long time, and should just try and get rest and if I am still having contractions later in the day, then I should come in. But I couldn't rest, and my mom and Kevin were both up timing every contraction and getting more excited with every second. I called the midwife back about 5:30, and told her I didn't want to wait until later in the day, I couldn't rest, because they were too painful and too close together, and I wanted to be checked sooner. Like before rush hour, so I wouldn't get stuck in traffic with a bunch of painful contractions. So she agreed to have the other midwife that would be on call at 7 am meet me at the birth center.

Kevin called work, and told them that I might be in labor, and if I was, he wasn't coming in. If I wasn't, he would be there late.

We got to the birth center, they did an exam, and said my water had broken, I was totally effaced, and dilated to 5 cm. So I stayed, and they knew I was in active labor, and i would have the baby that day (you have to have the baby after a certain amount of time once your water breaks, or they have to take you to the hospital for a c-section).

Well, things are a blur after that. He was in the wrong position, and not coming down. So they had me doing all sorts of things to get him to turn the right way so he could come down easier. I walked up and down flights of steps sideways. I labored on my side, in a rocking chair, on a birth ball, with one leg on the bed and one leg down on the floor, laying on the bed with my huge belly hanging off the side-nothing brought him around. By 10 am, I was 7 cm, and my 1pm, I was 9 cm--almost the full 10. They said I would get an urge to push, but, I never did. And then I tried pushing, but I didn't know what the hell I was doing. He still wasn't coming down.

I laid on the floor on a blanket and they tried to shake me to get him in the right position. My contractions were a minute and 45 seconds apart, and lasted for a minute and 30 seconds. It was like that for several hours. I asked if me or the baby was going to die, because I couldn't imagine that we would both live through this. Then I told them that I hoped the next baby was in the right position--and thought I must be insane to be planning the next one at a time like this. But I seriously thought I might die.

At 6 pm, they gave me 2 choices. I could go to the hospital, or they could give me an IV for some fluids and something to relax me called stadol (might be spelled wrong) so I could get some rest, get rehydrated, and hopefully just push him out. If I couldn't though, I had to go to the hospital. I took the IV.

At 7, they got me up, I went to the bathroom, I laid on my side on the bed, and I was like ,"I'm f-ing pushing him out. He's coming out now.

I pushed for a couple hours, and I pushued him all the way down and all the way out. Once i could feel his head, I was like, "You've been in there long enough!" And I just pushed all the rest of him out. And he was bornat 9:37 pm. And he was perfect. And I didn't have an episiotomy, but I did tear a little bit near my labia (they said it was a very weird place for a tear). I have 5 stitches.

He had the biggest conehead I've ever seen! And he shrieked like crazy! And he breastfed right away. And he weighed 8 pounds 14.5 ounces, and was 21 inches long. I've never loved someone so much. Girls, when you have your baby, it's the absolte most intense feeling of love you ever felt.

We named him Isaac James. He's everything.